Welcome to Mellow's Log Cabin. This blog's purpose is to supply information on a diversity of American southern music - ranging from country, blues, old-time and folk to R&B, rock'n'roll and rockabilly. I regularly present my research results about artists, labels, shows and also give guest writers a chance to publish their texts here on occasion.

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Thursday, May 7, 2009

Roy Hall day

Not to confuse with the country and rockabilly pianist of the same name, Roy Hall had a long career in old-time music and was associated with the pianist Hall. I think, he was one of the last "old-time" musicians. Hall was born in 1907 and learned to play the guitar in 1932; he had his first radio show one year later. At the end of the 1930s, he set up his own band, the Blue Ridge Entertainers, which were later joined by another pair called Hall, the Hall Twins (Saford and Clayton). Hall recorded for several labels during that time. In 1943, Roy Hall died in a car accident and was replaced by pianist James Faye Hall, who began to perform under the name of "Roy Hall". Hall left the Hall Twins and began to record on his own, eventually for Decca the songs "Three Alley Cats", "You Ruined My Blue Suede Shoes", "All By Myself" and so on. But that's another story.

Here are some of Hall's songs he recorded with the Blue Ridge Entertainers:

2 comments:

zlong
said...

You know, I just think it's awful Roy Hall's recordings aren't better remembered. I'd never heard him before you posted this, and I'm very obliged. I played one of these for my grandmother and she agreed with my sentiment, that Hall's music was advanced above many of his contemporaries. Is there a way to download these songs, by any chance, or are they just for playing? A BIG thanks to you for doing all this-you've really helped me broaden my musical spectrum!

I'm glad you like Hall, he's - in my opinion - one of the last real old-time artists, before old-timey became bluegrass. However, you can download the files by clicking right and "Save target as". In the case this doesn't work, let me now and I will upload the files on my filehoster.